vaga #5/2 Pachyderms

Part II

From the sea to the middle of the island, the pachyderms they are the "top",  there is also an important variety of beautiful, different and unique birds in the world for being an island, it is a must for  "birdwatchers", I am not and I did not pay much attention, however, over time I was perceiving one and another and another never seen before and of admirable beauty, nature has so many wonderful surprises that continue to surprise me.

Elephants, they give me tremendous emotion, I get caught up, my heart rate accelerates, I behave like a small kid, it only happens when I see them in herds, not in a zoo one by one, elephant families, with their young. It is the maximum. It happens to me that seeing that when I see huge and peaceful prehistoric mammals that look into your eyes, when they are domesticated, you touch them, you climb on them, you feed them,  to see that huge gray lump, which imposes itself by itself and so careful, so intelligent, so peaceful. That contradiction fascinates me, they are not threats to your person (on another occasion I will tell that it was threatening on a safari in Africa that I did more than 20 years ago, and I felt the terror of being attacked). In this country they are not hunted as in Africa and Asia, and there is a huge population, free, in sanctuaries, in national parks and in functions in religious rituals which have been done for centuries and centuries. The elephant is the most appreciated thing that can be had, a work animal of great strength. In Laos in the times of kings and fights against each other to gain territory a monarchical army was called "the thousand elephants"  today it would be "1000 combat aircraft" .... and they were second to none.

The photos below were one afternoon when I went to a sanctuary, but not like the ones they do now for tourists, here it was one for elephants, they live free in a protected area, there were about 70, and twice a day they herd  them to the river , because there is a hamlet in between for them to drink their hundreds of litres of water a day, bathe and get muddy, and I had to be there, my  emotions were uncontrollable, it was too much for me, I wanted someone to pinch me, walking with them, at half a metre away from them, not one but dozens… and I repeated to myself which photo to choose from the over fifty that I have, which is difficult.

What killed me was the babies, how they bathed, they submerged themselves in the water over and over again, they played with each other with their trunks, there were at least 15 babies and all of them were playing. I have many photos where they are underwater and you can see their backs. I don't need to see any more elephants because I will never see them in this semi-free quantity, never again and I am in the middle of them.

ELEPHANT NURSERY

ELEPHANT CONGESTION

ELEPHANTS STOPPING THE TRAFFIC: THEY CROSS FROM THE RIVER TO THEIR HOME, THERE ARE POLICE THAT STOP THE THE TRAFFIC, BUT IT IS NOT REALLY NECESSARY THEY TAKE OVER THE STREET

There is no object without reference to the pachyderms, I say there is no item that is saved from its images, clothes, sheets, plates, cutlery, mirrors, combs, underpants,  and so on whether they are luxury objects and expensive with gold trimming to those simpler and  plastic, the variety of designs and materials for me I never seen before. There must be thousands and thousands of different designs, I took some photos because it was amazing the only thing that you see in everything is elephants without exception, the photos below could be multiplied by a thousand or more, I tried to transfer the feeling of abundance of creations based on one motif. It is seen a lot in furniture and especially in architecture.

paper made of POOP, it is very good and a kind texture. Toilette: 30 rupees

Another wonder and the fortune that accompanied me was in Kandi, in the interior of the island, in a religious festival that nobody gave importance to, it was common. Sri Lanka is one of the countries with the most holidays in the world, a couple per month. I was walking through the streets when I heard music, I quickly went to see where it came from and I found this, once again without words, the elephants who participate in rites and those who are part of royalty are dressed, their clothes are wonderful, gold embroidery which tells stories, their tusks decorated with metals

I took these photos from far away but I leave them here as a witness to seeing elephants in the wild, they live in the forests, nobody touches them. The elephants belong to the government, some have their own elephants in fact I saw that they passed by with a trainer walking through the village, but they are owned by the government.

This is not an elephant, but they wear the same colorshirts, and are in the same area, the largest bats in the world, in the city of Kandi they appear at night in droves.

I finish with my sandals and the pachyderms in one photo, this close.